Black is Beautiful

If there is one thing I love, its photographing Black Women.

This is my speciality.

I take this very seriously because as a Photographic Subject, Black Women turn me on.

This all began with my mother.

I made a point of learning how light interacts with different shades of Black Skin.

My Cousin Annie above is lit just by natural window light.

My Cousin Mary caught perfectly by late afternoon sun.

My biggest learning has come from the use of Speed-Lights on Camera and Off and high powered Strobes.

Learning to Light a subject in a studio is a big learning. I am still on it, learning something new each time I fire up my Strobes.

How difficult is it to photograph Black Women?

Well, check this out.

Cameras today have become so sophisticated.

They are computers capable of seeing in the dark.

The Light Meter is a very critical piece of the hardware.

The in built Meter sees the world as grey. This means any light coming off a subject will be treated as 18% grey. My job is to expose for the Light and under or over exposing slightly darker skin in natural Light.

This image of my friend Karen is all natural Light, no Flash at this stage of my studies. This was shot with a 50mm 1.4 on my D750.

What on Earth has brought this on Michael?

Glad you asked.

World famous photographer Annie Leibovitz has come under serious fire for her visual representation of Black Women. Her most recent shoot feature poorly represented and crafted images of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Click here to read more

I found this article frustrating simply because her reputation got her the job, her technique at creating these images have called into question a bigger argument.

Thanks for reading